Food Safety Culture covered the need for all food businesses to focus on attitude change to the importance of food safety. The presentation by well-known speaker on the topic, Frank Yianna is well worth watching. He is the Author of Food Safety Culture and Vice President Food Safety, Wal-Mart (see link below).

Professor Alan Reilly spoke on food crisis management and implications for regulators: The lessons learnt from the EU-wide horsemeat scandal. He was the head of the Irish Food Regulatory Organisations that originally identified the horsemeat scandal.

Food Security covers the security of supply to all members of the population at all times.

Food Defense covers the protection of the food supply from attack whether en masse or at localised or business only level.

Strawberry Traceability Project

The United Fresh, GS1 and Strawberry Growers NZ Traceability Pilot was undertaken on November 3rd. This has generated some very interesting learnings across the supply chain about the robustness of traceability systems.

The outcomes are being reviewed and a draft report completed. A debrief will occur with participants in February. At that point a decision will be made as to the next step.

Yersinia Review

A survey of key players affected by the Yersinia outbreak in 2014 was undertaken. This included growers, wholesalers and retailers. Findings around communication issues with MPI and media management will be reviewed and recommendations as to where to now will be made. The report is being prepared.